June 20, 2009

 

 

A backlash is building in agricultural powerhouse Argentina against the increasing reliance on transgenic soy and the herbicide widely used in their cultivation.

 

Soy dominate the country's farm output, but growing concern over the environmental impact of their cultivation has spurred a legal and legislative assault on the beans.

 

In April, the Argentine Association of Environmental Lawyers filed a case at the Supreme Court to halt the use of the herbicide glyphosate, which virtually all of the soy grown in Argentina are genetically modified to resist. Up to 200 million litres of the herbicide are sprayed across Argentina's farm belt each season.

 

In addition, Congress is expected to debate a bill later this year that would suspend the use of glyphosate for six months while a decision is made regarding a permanent ban or increased regulation.

 

Farmers say the move against the herbicide has little chance of advancing and is just another attack against the sector in retaliation for protests against grain export taxes and other farm policies. Farmers launched a series of crippling strikes against the government over four months last year that shut down road transport across the country, blocked exports and caused food shortages in the cities.

 

"It's totally political. Now everything related to farming is an enemy of the government," said Rodolfo Rossi, the president of the Argentine soy growers association, Acsoja.

 

In the midst of the farm strikes last year, President Cristina Fernandez called soy "practically a weed" and urged a shift away from the crop.

 

Soy is responsible for 1.1 million hectares of native forests being cleared, affecting biodiversity and climate change, Fernandez said.

 

In 1996, GM soy resistant to glyphosate were introduced to Argentina by St. Louis-based biotech giant Monsanto Co. (MON). Now virtually all of the soy grown in Argentina are based on Monsanto's technology, and as much as 60 percent of cultivated land is expected to go to soy next season. Monsanto didn't return calls seeking comment.

 

The spread of the transgenic beans caused an unprecedented boom in farm wealth yet also brought a host of ills, including soil deterioration, as farmers failed to rotate in less-profitable crops and wide-scale deforestation to open up new fields for soy or cattle displaced by the beans.

 

While environmentalists have long decried the shift to soy monoculture, opposition heated up earlier this year when an unpublished study conducted by the University of Buenos Aires Institute of Cellular Biology and Neuroscience Molecular Embryology Lab found that very low doses of glyphosate caused mutations in amphibian embryos.

 

"The companies say that drinking a glass of glyphosate is healthier than drinking a glass of milk, but the reality is that they have used us like guinea pigs," the report's author, Andres Carrasco, told local daily La Voz del Interior.

 

While glyphosate has been used for 30 years and is approved in more than 100 countries, following the report the Defense Minister prohibited growing transgenic soy on army farms with residential compounds. In addition, a number of local districts have banned or limited the use of glyphosate around populated areas, and a number of provinces also are debating legislation to prohibit or limit glyphosate use.

 

The Supreme Court case has the potential to upend the farm sector, nationwide economy and international soy markets. Argentina is the world's leading exporter of soymeal and oil and the third-largest exporter of soy. The legume is the country's largest export product and a key pillar of government income due to high export taxes.

 

The court is considering whether to hear the case, which was filed directly to the country's top tribunal due to the multiple provincial and federal jurisdictions involved.

 

It remains to be seen if the court is willing to step into an issue with such immense political and economic implications for the country.

 

"We're fighting against a monster, mixed up in a very big mess, but we don't have animosity towards anyone. We just want them to stop killing people, to put an end to this silent genocide," said Mariano Aguilar, the executive director of the Argentine Association of Environmental Attorneys.

 

Despite the case and bill pending before Congress, farmers are confident that both will stall despite criticism of the crop by the president.

 

"There's a double discourse, one for the general public demonising soy, while on the other hand the government is very interested in farmers growing soy because it's their main source of direct taxes," Acsoja's Rossi said.

 

Despite the rhetoric, the government has spurred the continued shift toward soy by imposing export limits and price controls on other goods such as wheat, corn and beef to keep local food prices down. With virtually no domestic demand for soybeans, their price and exports have been untouched, fueling farmers to plant more of the sure-bet beans.

 

Soy planting is likely to surge to between 19 million and 20 million hectares this season, shattering the previous record set last year by more than 20 percent, the Buenos Aires Cereal Exchange's top climatologist, Eduardo Sierra, said.